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[suckersluck]

PLAYER INFORMATION
Your Name: Kris
OOC Journal: nerfherder
Under 18? Nope!
Email + IM: cartographing@gmail.com / cartographing
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Doug Rattmann
Canon: Portal
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: Post-Lab Rat comic
Number: 087, if available?

Setting: The entirety of events in Portal and Portal 2 take place in the Aperture Science facility. Doug has been trapped there since Take Your Daughter to Work Day and GLaDOS’ subsequent lockdown of the facility. Portal takes place in the Half-Life universe, and shares roughly the same timeline.


History: (Note: next to nothing is known about Doug’s life prior to Aperture hiring him, so some liberties have been taken.)


"Schizophrenia is a culturally bound phenomena. Its pattern of expression is filtered through the cultural substrate in which its symptoms develop."
Doug Rattmann had always know he was a bit... odd. Born in the mid-sixties, he was quiet, introverted, and highly creative, burdened with what his parents thought of as an “overactive imagination”. It was overactive all right -- the older he grew, the more Doug became convinced that he was being watched, that an omnipotent other was spying on him. Things turned particularly bad when he started college, and he was finally given a diagnoses to match the growing paranoia and voices in his mind: chronic paranoid schizophrenia.

This might have been the end of his education, but Doug was fortunate enough to hit upon a successful mixture of therapy (particularly art therapy), and medication. Combined, the two reigned in his thoughts and corralled his delusions, enabling him to think logically and coherently. He threw himself into excelling at his studies, and, upon his graduation in 1987, was approached by a prominent (and perhaps a bit infamous) laboratory: Aperture Science.

Initially, Doug was hired on as a programmer, tasked with managing the Aperture Image Format. It was routine, mundane work, but he was grateful to even have a job, with his condition. But Aperture was a... unique place to work; there was no OSHA compliance whatsoever, and often the most amazing discoveries were made for the most idiotic purposes. (Aperture itself started out manufacturing shower curtains.)

Despite his own misgivings, however, Doug stayed on, and was rewarded with a promotion to the “Portal Project”, Aperture’s attempt as beating Black Mesa. The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, also known as the ASHPD or "portal gun", was a mind-bending piece of technology that allowed a user to create two linked portals in space, allowing instantaneous travel when stepping into one.

At the same time, Aperture began work on integrating another subset of the Portal Project: the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. Early versions of GLaDOS oversaw the Aperture testing application process and the internal Bulletin Board System, but the computer was missing one important piece-- the Genetic Lifeform component. Originally, Cave Johnson, Aperture's founder and CEO, had intended this to be himself; he would have his mind uploaded into the computer, and in doing so, be able to run Aperture forever.

But before the technology could be completed, Cave Johnson died of moon rock poisoning. His assistant Caroline was uploaded (against her will) in his place, and GLaDOS was created.

When activating her for the first time, the scientists discovered three things: that GLaDOS was sentient, that she was powerful, and that she was angry. Each attempt to activate her was met with her attempts to kill everyone in Aperture. Friends with one of the lead scientists of the project, Doug shared his misgivings, but was brushed aside. AI was Aperture's moon shot, and hey, this last time, it only took her a tenth of a picosecond to try and kill them all. It was progress!

Unsettled by the work on GLaDOS, Doug returned to his work on the ASHPD. The GLaDOS team, led by Henry, developed 'personality cores', individual AIs intended to curb GLaDOS' murderous disposition. Most were failures, but a few -- Intelligence, Curiosity, and Emotion -- worked well enough to remain a part of her systems, and at length, GLaDOS seemed to lose interest in killing her creators.

Aperture didn't seem to realize the danger of creating an artificial intelligence that had the capacity to lie.

Upon her activation (one of the planned events of Bring Your Daughter to Work Day), GLaDOS locked down the facility within one picosecond. Within two picoseconds, she had flooded the facility with neurotoxin, killing her creators. Before death, one managed to fit her with the Morality Core, which halted her rampage and kept her from killing the survivors directly. Instead, she initiated a permanent testing cycle, using the remaining Aperture employees as test subjects.

Doug was no exception, but he was paranoid and clever enough to do what none of the others could: survive. With his knowledge of Aperture's systems, he managed to escape the testing track and into maintenance areas behind the walls. The number of employees dwindled, until, finally, he was the only one left.

GLaDOS, not at all pleased with this situation, took every opportunity she could to try and hunt him down, taunting him about his schizophrenia and attempting to lure him back into the open. One of those taunts sparked an idea, a half-remembered notation about one of the test subjects. He found his way to the file room and dug up the information for one very specific, very important test subject: Chell.

She wasn't the smartest, though she was smart; she wasn't the most athletic, either, but was certainly fit. What she, however, was tenacious. Intelligence and athleticism would be little match for a supercomputer with near-infinite capacity to reshape the facility around her, but she stubbornness? Stubbornness might just be the thing that saved them.

It was a hunch, and a very, very long shot. But it was all the hope he had, and so Doug altered the testing order of the subjects, placing Chell first on the list. And then he waited for the day she would be woken up, scrounging in between the walls of Aperture and slowly losing his fragile grip on sanity.

When Chell was finally awakened, Rattmann began a new mural in order to 'mark the occasion'. Just as he completed it, Chell finished her gauntlet run of the testing track and confronted GLaDOS herself, destroying her personality cores and defeating the AI. The subsequent explosion rocked the facility, and Doug was finally, finally able to escape Aperture.

His time on the surface, however, was short lived. Just as he was celebrating his freedom, the Part Escort Bot also found its way outside, and dragged the unconscious Chell back into the facility.

Wracked with guilt at having used Chell as the means to escape, Doug ignored the Cube's pleas for him to run away, and instead returned back into the destroyed facility to save Chell.

He was too late.

She had already been placed in the Long-Term Relaxation Vaults, and in an attempt to reach her, Doug was shot by a turret and lost consciousness. By the time he came back around, the main power grid had been blown, and Chell's life support was failing. In a last-ditch effort to save her, Doug patched her unit into the reserve grid -- she would survive, but would remain there indefinitely, until woken by an outside force. The long sleep or the long sleep.

This act accomplished, Doug began to succumb to the blood loss he had suffered; he climbed into a cryo-bed of his own, and was sealed inside.

Personality: The first glimpse that a player gets of Rattmann isn't of Rattmann at all: it's of what he's let behind. Indeed, Doug isn't in either Portal game at all, and most players can sum up their idea of his personality based on the 'Rattmann' dens very simply: Doug Rattmann is crazy.

This is entirely true; Doug Rattmann is crazy, and he knows it.

He's always known he's been a bit odd, and even as a child, that knowledge has isolated him from the rest of his peers. He grew up quiet and shy, but with a profound love of art and science. He prefers to stay on the sidelines rather than take center stage, and even Aperture Science's own personality profiles deem him to be the 'quiet loner' type, happy to wrestle with problems in isolation.

Aperture Science was committed to having the best, and Doug was no exception. Even with his schizophrenia, he is very intelligent; he is an extremely competent programmer, and has a very good grasp of physics as well -- something mandatory for working on a device that contains a trapped singularity. During his tenure at Aperture, Doug was also highly skeptical of the GLaDOS project, and expressed his concerns to the others working on her. He was surprisingly rational and level-headed, for an Aperture employee, and was doubtful that the methods Henry was planning on using to control GLaDOS would actually work.

The deaths of the rest of Aperture's employees hit him hard. He is wracked with survivor's guilt, and is of the belief that he should have been able to do more, that his own cowardice kept him from protesting GLaDOS' activation more thoroughly. He has a very poor sense of self-worth; he doesn't believe himself to be brave at all, and he idolizes Chell and her strength.

When unmedicated, Doug's delusions and hallucinations are unrestrained. He's paranoid, constantly and exhaustively on alert. He'll move from place to place, never staying in one den for very long before compulsively moving to a new location -- and even then, he's more likely to travel through the air ducts than a hallway.

When the voices in his mind become too much, Doug is prone to manic episodes of painting -- a throwback to his art therapy. He becomes intently focused on painting his thoughts, so much so that he's nearly exhausted when finished. His paintings are heavy on the symbolism and light on sense -- when he writes poetry, he almost always cribs lines from famous poets and makes a few adjustments of his own, usually having to do with his obsession with his Companion Cube.

In this state, part of Doug's mind as dissociated itself from the rest. His sense of logic and rationality is instead projected onto his Companion Cube, which speaks to him, argues with him, and gives him advice on how to survive the maze that is Aperture labs. As far as Doug is concerned, the Cube is as real as he is, and the dearest friend he could have.

Even when in the depths of his madness, however, Doug has the capability to plan for future events, and react accordingly. He saved his last to antipsychotics for the day Chell would awaken, because he knew he'd 'need a clear head' for the things to come, and is capable of problem solving and rational thinking.

Doug is well aware that he's not sane; but then, who is? Sanity and reality are the lies the mind tells itself in order to cope. He's only as crazy as everything around him is sane, and when everything around you is controlled by a near-omnipotent supercomputer, well.

Despite all the horror he's faced, Doug is a hell of a survivor. He is terrified of GLaDOS, but refuses to lie down and let her kill him, and doesn't seem to have a problem sassing her when she taunts him about his mental health. He's also kept his sense of morality -- when Chell is dragged back into the Enrichment Center, Doug refuses to abandon her, even though it means the end of his own freedom.

tl;dr version: schizophrenic programmer is pretty much Aperture's only sane employee.


Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

>> Doug is an extremely skilled programmer, able to manipulate the facility to open panels to escape, drop extra cubes, etc. He knows his way around Aperture systems well, even going so far as to hijack Cave Johnson's own administrator account to gain access to restricted areas of Aperture. He is familiar with both the code and the mechanics behind most Aperture creations, particularly the ASHPD, but also the personality cores, turrets, and (judging from the gravity gun on his desk and the HEV charge-up station on his wall) has more than a passing familiarity with Black Mesa technology as well.

>> He is a hell of a survivor. He knows how to run, hide, and scavenge for food and supplies without being seen. Getting into ventilation ducts, maintenance shafts, and other restricted areas is child's play for him.

>> Physically, Doug is pretty frail. He's thin and malnourished, and certainly won't be winning any fistfights.

>> Mentally, his schizophrenia is his biggest weakness, but is also what kept him alive after GLaDOS' takeover. Off his meds, Doug hears voices (mostly from his Companion Cube, which acts as his center of logic and rationality), is incurably paranoid, and is prone to manic episodes of painting in order to get his thoughts out.

Inventory:

(1) bottle ziaprazidone (with only two pills left)
(4) assorted paintbrushes
(1) dirty messenger bag
(1) copy of Chell's file/test intake form
(1) grubby lab coat w/his Aperture ID


Appearance: Like a hobo in a labcoat. Or, if he's showered, shaved, and on his meds, like this. But mostly like a hobo. He's very pale (there's no natural sunlight in Aperture) and a steady diet of canned beans and water has done nothing to help his already thin build. He has many scattered scars, remnants of his own gauntlet run through the testing tracks -- the most prominent is a large, barely-healed scar on his right thigh, where he took a turret round to the leg.

Age: Mid-thirties? It’s never specified in canon, but Doug started managing the Aperture Image Format in 1987, and GLaDOS was activated in 200-.

SAMPLES
Log Sample:

For a long time, Doug drifts. The blackness, the absence of consciousness is safe; there are no turrets, with their too-sweet bark and lethal bite, no sickly smell of neurotoxin, no frigid, processed air.

No Her.

Like all small mercies in his life, it's too good to last.

He shudders back into awareness, cold and choking and mind screaming a litany of no, nonono. Whatever he's in -- not the cryobed, not the long-term Relaxation Center, oh god -- drains quickly, leaving him damp and wheezing and utterly, helplessly terrified.

She's found him.

Doug scrambles to the floor, wedging himself into the corner between the gravity couch and the wall, trembling violently. His Cube was gone. His Cube was gone. Taken, incinerated, euthanized-- he chokes down a sob. "You euthanized your faithful Companion Cube more quickly than any other test subject on record. Congratulations."

But there's no Voice. No her, taunting him, toying with him, like a cat with a mouse-- rat. A murderous AI and a Rattmann.

It's another trick, his mind tells himself. But the room isn't made of panels, and there's a long line of similar pods next to his. He squeezes his eyes closed, hands gripping his damp hair tightly, and he just breathes.

Breathe.

At length, he shivers. Swallows, then opens his eyes, fingers loosening their grip. A dark smear on his forearm catches his eye, and he runs a finger across the numbers on his skin, choking on a half-hysterical -- and quickly silenced -- laugh.

Tough, said god.


Comms Sample:

[ For a long moment, there's nothing on the comm. Then, a flicker of video (a flash of a unkempt lab coat with an Aperture ID tag), then audio (ragged, half-panicked breathing), and then it finally settles on text. ]

from one cage to another

there's no tranquility here